Picoides: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Genus of birds}}

{{forFor|the Society of Canadian Ornithologists newsletter|Picoides (newsletter)}}

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'''''Picoides''''' is a [[genus]] of [[woodpeckers]] ([[Family (biology)|family]] [[Picidae]]) that are native to [[Eurasia]] and [[North America]], commonly known as '''three-toed woodpeckers'''.

The genus ''Picoides'' was introduced by the French naturalist [[Bernard Germain de Lacépède]] in 1799.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Lacépède | first=Bernard Germain de | author-link=Bernard Germain de Lacépède | year=1799 | title=Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours d'histoire naturelle | chapter=Tableau des sous-classes, divisions, sous-division, ordres et genres des oiseux | language=fr | publisher=Plassan | place=Paris | page=7 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uhAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA81 }} Page numbering starts at one for each of the three sections.</ref> The [[type species]] was subsequently designated as the [[Eurasian three-toed woodpecker]] (''Picoides tridactylus'') by the English zoologist [[George Robert Gray]] in 1840.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Gray | first=George Robert | author-link=George Robert Gray | year=1840 | title=A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus | place=London | publisher=R. and J.E. Taylor | page=54 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13668971 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1948 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=Volume 6 | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=215 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14477648}}</ref> The genus name combines the Latin ''Picus'' for a woodpecker and the [[Classical Greek|Greek]] ''-oidēs'' meaning "resembling".<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 |page=306}}</ref> The genus ''Picoides'' formerly contained around 12 species. In 2015 a [[molecular phylogenetic]] analysis of nuclear and [[mitochondrial]] DNA sequences from pied woodpeckers found that three existing genera (''Picoides'', ''[[Veniliornis]]'' and ''[[Dendropicos]]'') were [[polyphyletic]]. After the resurrection of five [[monophyletic]] genera and the subsequent rearrangement in which most of the former members of ''Picoides'' were moved to ''[[Leuconotopicus]]'' and ''[[Dryobates]]'', only three of the original species remained.<ref>{{ cite journal | last1=Fuchs | first1=J. | last2=Pons | first2=J.M. | year=2015 | title=A new classification of the pied woodpeckers assemblage (Dendropicini, Picidae) based on a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=88 | pages=28–37 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2015.03.016 | pmid=25818851| bibcode=2015MolPE..88...28F }}</ref><ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | title=Woodpeckers | work= World Bird List Version 6.2 | url= http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/woodpeckers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union| access-date = 5 May 2016 }}</ref>

The males of all three species have yellow on the crown, though this feature is also present in some other pied woodpeckers, namely [[Brown-fronted woodpecker|brown-fronted]] and [[Yellow-crowned woodpecker|yellow-crowned]]. The remaining color pattern of the plumage, structural features, and life habits are very similar to related woodpeckers of the ''[[Dryobates]]'' and ''[[Leuconotopicus]]'' genera.<ref name="jdel">{{cite journal |last1=Delacour |first1=J. |title=The significance of the number of toes in some woodpeckers and kingfishers |journal=The Auk (American Ornithological Society) |date=January 1951 |volume=68 | issue = 1 |pages=49–51 | doi = 10.2307/4080797 |jstor=4080797 |url= https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v068n01/p0049-p0051.pdf |access-date=20 September 2018}}</ref> The foot of all three species show an extreme adaptation to arboreal living by lacking the first digit, or hallux. It has been pointed out however that various species of pied woodpecker are similar in having a short first digit.<ref name="jdel"/> Two species of woodpecker in genus ''[[Sasia]]'' (not closely related) also lack the first digit.

|[[image=File:Three-toed Woodpecker - Finlandia 0005 (3).jpg|120px]]image-size=180px |image-alt=| ''Picoides tridactylus'' ||[[Eurasian threeimage-toed woodpecker]] ||across northern Eurasia from Norway to Korea. caption=Male